


Disappearing Dishes

by AngelCuttingOnions



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, weird fuckin pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21715090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelCuttingOnions/pseuds/AngelCuttingOnions
Summary: The dishes seem to magically wash themselves. No one is quite sure why until Taako accidentally discovers it. It ends with a sandwich.
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Kravitz & Angus McDonald & Taako, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 177





	Disappearing Dishes

**Author's Note:**

> I’d like to think Ango is about 16 in this. It was only a matter of time before I hit TAZ with angst too, considering that’s what I write about 80% of the time. Anyway I started writing this like 45 minutes ago and it’s midnight so if there’s typos uhhhh. Oops I guess? idk

Dishes could be cleaned with magic, quite simply actually. However it took magical energy, wasted a spell slot if there were too many, and occasionally just didn’t work because someone rolled terribly. That’s why Taako always piled his dishes in the sink and completely ignored them until they disappeared, or he decided to do them three days later. Everyone was pretty sure that was all bullshit and Taako just forgot about them. 

At first this was annoying to everyone in the house except one Angus McDonald. Now don’t misunderstand, Angus enjoyed living in a clean environment. In fact, the teenager took it upon himself to make a chore chart for everyone, excluding the dishes which always seemed to magically disappear by most mornings.

If you’re wondering why these dishes seem to magically disappear, I’ll tell you in a bit if you’d only keep reading. 

Imagine if you will, a bedroom. So dark you can barely make out the deep purple of the curtains covering the windows, you can barely tell the walls are a light shade of gray. It’s nearly impossible to make out the shape of the bed, the desk, and the dresser. It’s after 2:30 in the morning, and everyone in the house is sleeping. No sound to be heard except in this one bedroom we imagine you’re standing in. 

We hear breathing. Calm and slow at first, in... and out... in... and out. Now we hear the pace quicken. In, out, in, out. As the breathing speads up we hear someone rolling around in the bed. The breath becomes shaky, the person breathing sounds as if they’ve been running fast and far. In out in out in out _in_ \- 

The breath cuts itself off in a gasp. We watch as Angus thrashes, then quickly shoots up into a sitting position. We see his eyes snap open, a little moonlight shines through a crack in the curtains. His eyes shine as if he’s been crying. 

Angus is taking deep breaths to steady himself now, counting and holding. His breathing sounds much calmer, still a bit shaky though. He slides out of bed, one foot at a time. He grabs a hoodie stolen from Taako off his desk chair and slips it over his head. He opens the door to his bedroom, then shoves his hands in his pockets and we follow as he shuffles into the kitchen. 

When Angus enters the kitchen, we hear him whisper a word and causing a dim light to shine above the sink. He shoves the sleeves of his stolen hoodie up to his elbows, grabs a sponge and some soap, and gets to work. We notice he’s still very careful about his breathing, he hasn’t calmed down quite yet, but as he scrubs at more and more dishes we see the teen start to relax. 

When only a few dishes remain, we see another figure enter the kitchen. Taako speaks quietly to keep from startling Angus. “Ango? Why are you washing my dishes? It’s like 4.” Angus stiffens in response to the unexpected voice. He finishes rinsing one last plate, dries his hands, then turns to face Taako. 

“Sorry, did I wake you up Taako?” We watch Angus pull his sleeves back down, then shove his hands into his pockets once more. 

“Don’t worry about it Pumpkin. Go back to bed, we can talk at a decent fucking hour in the morning. Or afternoon.” Angus tenses. Taako pulls a water bottle from the fantasy-fridge, looks back at Angus, then grabs a second. “Or we can talk now.” The elf passes over one of the bottles, then pulls himself to sit on the counter, patting the spot beside him. 

We see Angus shake his head with a small smile, but pull himself up to sit next to Taako anyway. There’s a bit of silence before Taako starts speaking again. “Angus... I know we did the whole therapy talky feely thing the first couple years after S&S, and by we I mean mostly you because the rest of us are bad at taking care of our own mental health, and now I’m getting off track when I really just want to ask... have you been having nightmares again?” 

Another bit of silence comes before we hear Angus respond. “Yes.” Taako hums in response, waiting for Angus to continue. “They’ve- they’ve been getting a bit better lately. Tonight was bad.” 

“Do you want to talk about the dream?” Taako speaks quietly, almost carefully. 

We see Angus shake his head quickly. “Not- not yet.” 

“So you get up at too early to be alive and wash dishes to cope?” Angus nods. “Better than other things I guess.” 

“If it woke you up I can stop, I’m sure I can find another-“ Taako cuts him off. 

“If it works for you, go ahead. Don’t feel like you can’t wake me up though, although I do enjoy having clean dishes.” Taako pokes Angus in the side, causing the teen to giggle. 

“If you cleaned them yourself you wouldn’t have to wait until I had a nightmare.” We watch as they sit together on the counter for a few more minutes and finish their water before Angus yawns. 

“Okay kiddo, time for you to go back to bed.” Taako hops down, then waits for Angus to do the same. They walk out of the kitchen together, and just before they part ways, we see Taako pause. “I realize you’re not a little boy anymore, but do you want to-“ he nods towards the room he shares with Kravitz. 

Angus nods quickly and pads down the hallway behind Taako. Taako enters the room first, motioning for Angus to wait a second. He gently nudges at Kravitz, waking the reaper slowly. He whispers to his boyfriend for a moment, then goes back to Angus, nudging the teen towards the bed. 

Imagine another bedroom, this one with a little more moonlight shining in. You can make out a bed with the shape of a not quite sleeping reaper, you can just see the dark blue of the curtains and the cream color of the walls. You can see the clothes strewn about, and the dressers against the wall. 

We watch as Angus waves at Kravitz. The reaper smiles softly and waves back, then immediately falls back asleep. Angus crawls under the covers, only feeling slightly silly for being a nearly grown boy crawling into bed with his parents because he had a bad dream. That feeling goes away once he’s sandwiched between Kravitz and Taako and he snuggles himself into Taako’s side. 

He doesn’t fall asleep for awhile, but when he does, he feels safe and protected.

**Author's Note:**

> I’d like to call this particular brand of angst, “Angsto McDangsto”


End file.
